So Johnson only became toxic to Gove after he had ridden him to victory

Speaking to Andrew Marr on the BBC, Michael Gove said that backing Boris Johnson to become the next prime minister would have been a “betrayal” of the country, because Johnson “ducks” crucial decisions and does not have the qualities needed to lead the government.

Defending himself against widespread accusations of self-serving treachery (“he stabbed Boris in the front and back”, one colleague said), Gove said that it was the country he was putting first, and not himself.

He said that he took the decision to stand against Johnson (knowing that it would effectively force Johnson to withdraw, which is what actually happened) at the eleventh hour, after talking to close friends and his wife, a Daily Mail journalist. He also said that he tried ringing Johnson to let him know so that he wouldn’t hear the surprise announcement in the media, but Johnson did not pick up.

“I came to the conclusion reluctantly, after throwing my heart and soul for four or five days into trying to get Boris to become the next leader of the Conservative Party, that he could not do that job,” Gove said.

“Right until the 11th hour I was talking to parliamentary colleagues, friends seeking to persuade them that Boris could lead the country and could be prime minister but in the final 24 hours there were actions that were taken, decisions that were ducked that led me to believe…Boris had the opportunity to build a team, Boris had the opportunity to lay out a particular vision in the last 24 hours and I felt that he did not step up to that challenge.”

Gove also said it was “telling” that Johnson immediately gave up on the leadership bid, suggesting that he thought Johnson had seized the opportunity as a face-saving excuse to withdraw.

Andrew Marr then told him that he is now widely viewed as the ‘Frank Underwood’ of British politics, referring to the psychopathic lead character in House of Cards – which was, I should point out, originally a British TV series set in Westminster before it was adapted for American television and set in the White House. House of Cards was written by Michael Dobbs, now Lord Dobbs, a former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party.

Dobbs told BBC Radio 4: “I keep reminding everybody that House of Cards is fiction, and I’m rather fed up with everybody rushing around and seeing it as if they are auditioning for parts in the next series. This is serious stuff. We are talking about the future of the country, the future of Europe and somehow it’s been reduced to not House of Cards, more like St Trinian’s. It’s like a posh boys’ punch-up, and frankly, I and millions of people around the country are rather fed up with it.”

Michael Gove